The present invention is directed towards a method for the production of low cost thin films of the amorphous silicon type.
In the world's search for a non-polluting renewable energy source, it has become apparent that silicon photovoltaic devices can play a major role if the cost for producing the cells can be reduced to a competitive level. State-of-the-art photovoltaics work well, but are energy intensive to produce and waste materials in fabrication, thus making them non-competitive when compared with conventional energy sources. Amorphous silicon cells of the photovoltaic variety, amorphous semiconductor electronic circuits, and amorphous photoreproductive films may overcome many of the problems with conventional silicon materials; however, until recently they have only remained lab experiments due to the many technical problems associated with their construction.
To date, the size of experimental amorphous cells has been extremely small due to defects and short circuits in the cell.